Judge finds Morrison government erred in approving preliminary work on tailings dam in the Tarkine

Federal court says the approval of preliminary work on a mining waste dam failed to apply the precautionary principle because it did not consider the habitat of the endangered Tasmanian masked owl. Photograph: Rob Blakers/Bob Brown Foundation

Conservationists have declared a win in a fight over Tasmania’s takayna/Tarkine rainforest after a judge found the Morrison government had erred in approving preliminary work on a mining waste dam.

Federal court justice Mark Moshinsky found the then environment minister, Sussan Ley, had failed to apply the precautionary principle before allowing drilling and surveying works for a new tailings dam near the town of Rosebery, on the state’s west coast.